The 21st Busan International Film Festival(BIFF) officially got underway with an opening ceremony at the Busan Cinema Center on Thursday afternoon.

A total of 301 films from 69 countries will be screened during the ten-day festival at five major theaters in the southern port city, including the Busan Cinema Center and CGV Centum City.

“A Quiet Dream” by South Korean director Jang Ryul opened the festival on Thursday, marking the first time a Korean film was selected as the festival’s opener since 2011 when Director Song Il-gon’s romance movie, “Always" was shown.

Iraqi director Hussein Hassan’s “The Dark Wind” will be screened as the closing film.

The BIFF will also showcase works from four contemporary directors of four countries in the Gala Presentation program, including “Bleed for This” by American director Ben Younger. In the New Currents segment, “A Billion Colour Story” by Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy of India and ten other films from ten Asian countries will be screened.

During the festival, there will also be a special retrospective on the films by late Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami.